A routine blood test may help predict survival in patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer known as Merkel cell carcinoma, according to new findings by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers. The results will be presented on Wednesday, October 31 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 54th Annual Meeting. "With such a fast-growing cancer, we get one question a lot: 'how long do I have?'," says Matthew Johnson, MD, a resident physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase and lead author on the study. "That's usually hard to answer. These findings enable us to give a more educated response."